EL CAJON  As a young girl growing up in San Diego, Gloria Chadwick received a book that would change her life.

It was “Wild Animals of the World,” a book she took to school to share its wonders with other students. The pictures and descriptions of the animals inspired Chadwick, but not immediately. One day she would be an award-winning wildlife artist who would visit Africa and use acrylic, oil, watercolors or ink to represent her view and interpretation of nature. But it would be decades later before she would grace the art world with her talented works.

“I did draw as a child, but then I became a psychiatric nurse and didn’t draw for 38 years,” said Chadwick, who lives today in Dehesa. “I entered a contest put on by the San Diego Zoo and Starbucks and I designed a flamingo tumbler in 2003 and started getting into painting again.”

Chadwick has made up for lost time. This weekend she’s the featured artist at the Pacific Southwest Wildlife Arts California Open, a two-day festival and competition for artists, decoy carvers and sculptors at the McMillin Event Center in Liberty Station. If you’re a hunter or a fisherman, this is a great event to check out to appreciate wildlife art and to get some terrific deals on wildlife paintings, decoys and other art work. The event runs 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Cost is $5 for adults and kids 12 and under free.

“I’m incredibly honored to be recognized by my peers and to be selected for this event,” said Chadwick, a graduate of Lincoln High before going to Grossmont College and Cal State Dominquez.

Chadwick said Pacific Southwest Wildlife Arts, and the group’s respect for the decoy as an original American art form, represents the conservation connections that symbolize her art.

“I’m so happy to be associated with them,” she said of PSWA. “If it weren’t for conservation organizations like Ducks Unlimited and others, hunting groups, we wouldn’t have the conservation of so much land and so many species. I’m a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt because he was a hunter who believed in conservation.”

Chadwick will be one of many local artists showing their works at the California Open, celebrating its 40th anniversary. The list includes El Cajon’s Bob Berry, a five-time World Champion fish carver and artist who will receive a World Show Lifetime Achievement Award in May for his contributions to taxidermy and fish carving for the last 50 years. He’s only the third person to receive the award from the World Taxidermy and Fish Carving group.

“We’re copying nature,” said Berry, who won awards as a novice at the very first California Open and has shown his works and competed at every once since. “Artists, carvers and taxidermists, that’s what we do.”

Other artists who will show their work include award-winning carvers Del Herbert of Chula Vista, Daniel Montano and Ron Dotson, who was the event’s featured artist last year.

“I worked at the National Marine Fisheries Service before retiring and going back to my art,” Dotson said. “We’re excited about a new category this year. We’ll have miniature paintings, restricted to 2½ by 3 ½ inches. They’ll be auctioned off at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The money will go to our youth carving program. The public will be invited to bid on the miniatures. It’s all for a very good cause.”

Chadwick still has her original “Wild Animals of the World” book. But sadly, some of the pages are marked with color stickers that identify animals struggling to survive. As a member of Artists For Conservation, Chadwick donates 20 percent of all her art sales to conservation organizations.

“Under all my art work at the show, I’ll include some conservation information about the animal,” Chadwick said. “Hopefully, anyone who visits my booth will see that my art has a message and that I’m deeply involved in conservation.”